Chapter 129: The Blue Roses (４)

****

Operation codename: Operation Dachshund.

In case anyone doesn’t know what a dachshund is, it’s a breed of hunting dog developed for badger hunting.

Very short legs.

Anyway. This is a massive operation. Not for any other reason, but because it’s an operation where Nanami and I are deployed simultaneously.

Everything proceeded at lightning speed.

We only had a few minutes. Breaking in as fast as possible would rob the enemy of preparation time and reduce casualties.

[Testing, testing. Can you hear me?]

Barely. I checked my radio.

“I can hear you now. Go ahead.”

It was the Recovery Department Chief’s voice from HQ command.

[Dr. Geum. If you move too far from the installed beacons, communication with HQ may be cut off. Communication with the other operatives inside the facility should remain intact.]

I nodded.

[You must keep your gas mask on at all times underground. And in your bag, there’s a compact oxygen tank you can attach in case of emergency.]

The oxygen tank felt like a bit much, but. A situation might call for it.

This is Sogong-dong Station.

Six people are deployed in this operation.

Me, Nanami, and four task force operatives. This place is… City Hall Station, very deep underground. Seems like a space even facility maintenance crews don’t visit.

A massive iron door loomed over us. It opened by turning a wheel like a bomb shelter door, but it was so rusted I doubted it would even open.

“Haah.”

My stomach was already turning.

Nanami turned the door’s mechanism, and the shelter door slowly opened with the sound of iron flakes crumbling. Still, having Nanami around means I don’t need much equipment, which is convenient.

[Breaching.]

We walked into a tunnel that looked like no one had set foot in for years. Nanami took point, shield at the ready.

“Um… are you sure this way leads to Sogong-dong Station? You’re certain of the route?”

[From here on it’s a labyrinth. A space with no maps, no common sense, no sunlight. Nothing is certain.]

Rrrrrrrrrumble.

The sound of a subway train passing in the distance. Like the heartbeat of a colossal underground beast whose heart beats only once every few minutes. The fact that I’m exercising this kind of imagination is the problem.

I need to empty my mind and focus on what’s in front of me. Things to check.

“Radon concentration in the area is high. Reality distortion levels are mostly normal. Maintaining gas masks.”

[Confirmed.]

This situation is different from usual.

Anywhere with visible sky, Foundation helicopters and fighters could reach within an hour. But this is deep underground.

If something goes wrong, there’s no telling how long it would take to reach this position.

[Sogong-dong Station. Entering.]

The abandoned subway station viewed through night-vision goggles was an eerie sight. The fact that there was at least some open ground… was both reassuring and terrifying.

Because you never know what might be hiding where.

I swept the surroundings with the augmented reality overlay on my night-vision goggles. Nothing was moving. Except for the operatives who came in with me.

“There’s nothing here?”

Yeah.

[Search.]

If people had been here recently, traces would remain. The Remote Viewing Division and the Precognition Division definitely said the enemy was at Sogong-dong Station.

Was the search insufficient?

“Over here. Soot on the wall.”

I touched the dust on the wall with my gloved hand. Hard to tell through the night-vision goggles, but the color was different. Soot marks, maybe… Of course, the campfire itself was gone.

Nanami turned her head toward me.

[They relied on magic. Magic is flashy and extremely artificial — you should know that a spell meant to hide something is itself suspicious.]

True.

Two bags sat behind a pillar. They seemed to have tried to hide them with perception interference.

“Let’s not touch them. They’re probably things they left behind because they were useless anyway, and in the worst case, they might be booby-trapped.”

Nanami immediately opened the bag and dumped its contents onto the floor. So she had no intention of listening to me… I moved behind the pillar.

[Canned food, wet wipes. Just junk.]

No booby trap.

We searched the rest of the abandoned station.

All that remained in the station was dust and concrete.

Sogong-dong Station had been abandoned before it was even completed, after all. There wasn’t so much as a bench or a tile to be seen inside.

[Ahead. Something’s behind the pillar.]

“Take cover.”

We took cover in suitable positions and listened to the footsteps approaching from ahead. Nanami, shield raised, walked toward the sound.

“See anything?”

[Looks like a monster.]

Nanami stopped in her tracks.

[Open fire!]

A mass of tentacles and eyeballs charged at Nanami, and she dodged backward. Gunfire erupted from all directions—

BOOM!

The heavy thud of a grenade launcher. Which one of us had brought a grenade launcher?

Silver bullets. Where were the silver bullets—things that looked that horrible usually died easily to silver.

Bonus damage against undead, that kind of thing.

Click. Reload complete.

I leveled the Foundation-issue rifle at the target ahead and emptied the magazine. The tentacled monster, bleeding, collapsed to the floor.

[Dr. Geum. Come take a look at this.]

Nanami raised her shield, and the task force advanced to form a defensive perimeter around the monster’s corpse. I drew Nigurath-5 and ran toward the target.

Every time I saw something like this.

‘Ugh, it’s a monster, isn’t it? A bundle of tentacles, isn’t it?’

‘It looks fucking horrifying, doesn’t it?’

—I felt the urge to say that. How would I know? It’s an anomaly, probably. By definition, aren’t those beings impossible to fully understand?

I poked the corpse with my sword.

“Hmm… the structure of the tentacles isn’t that of any real organism. Given that there’s a skeletal structure, however grotesque, it might be closer to arms than tentacles. The eyes are mammalian in structure, and though they’re a bit large, the irises are relatively round—”

I realized it as I spoke.

I don’t need to say it out loud—by now, you probably know what I’m going to say. This, too, is a person. Or something made from a person as raw material.

I rummaged through the monster’s corpse with my sword. Sure enough, at the center of the body, bones that appeared to be a human skeleton emerged.

[Yes, well. Another person. They probably made a few of these and released them to buy time. We’ll just collect the remaining bones like we did for the humans—]

Let’s think about the dead later.

[We’ll talk later—load silver bullets. Looks like more undead zombie slimes are coming.]

****

Groups of Interest are the enemies of humanity. There is not a single exception. Looking at a scene like this, you can’t help but side with the Foundation.

Disgusting things.

I fished out what appeared to be a human skull from the corpse—now a pulp of blood—with the tip of my sword, then crushed it under my combat boot.

I hope this ends the suffering.

“Moving forward.”

The most primal fear is the fear of the unknown. Though I was fighting that fear with night-vision goggles and survey equipment…

The essence doesn’t change. Darkness and dust so thick you can’t see past your own elbow without night vision. An unknown enemy that can turn people into tentacle slimes to buy time.

We know nothing. We’re just monkeys holding machine guns, reassuring ourselves with rules and formulas.

We can’t even fully grasp the underground labyrinth of Seoul—our own creation—and we can’t control the Blue Rose instances—also our own creation. That’s all there is to it.

Who knows how much ammunition we poured out—before long, seven lumps of gore lay scattered across the floor.

[Everyone, halt.]

Nanami drew her sword—

SNAP.

The subway station ahead flickered for a single instant.

“What… is that?”

[I don’t know either. Something’s been laid as a spell beyond this line. Could be an enemy trap, could just be a ‘screw you’ they set up… or it could be a section that doesn’t exist.]

“Ah.”

[I recommend we don’t cross this line.]

Nanami drew a line on the floor with her sword. The subway station visible beyond the line… looking again, something about it was wrong.

****

Two Blue Roses decided to stay at Sogong-dong Station.

Blue Rose-4. Silver.

Blue Rose-5. Paint.

Blue Rose-1, Contrabass’s order had been to flee to Dongmajang Station and fight there.

Silver and Paint decided to ignore that order. There was no particular reason. They just decided to.

“Whoa… those lumps of gore didn’t last a few seconds. Weren’t those things supposed to be unkillable twice over?”

“They die to silver bullets.”

Silver let out a sigh.

“Think those humans will come into the phase space? We can kill them in here.”

“Who knows. Should we lure them in?”

Silver shook her head.

“Either way, to reach Dongmajang Station through the underground tunnels, they have to pass through this section. If the enemy steps into our phase space, we kill them then.”

Click. Silver chambered a round.

“We’re the Foundation’s creations too. I know the Foundation bastards’ capabilities well. We kill them like this.”

Paint put on a gas mask borrowed from the station’s storage room. The two humanoid anomalies waited for the Foundation’s soldiers. Footsteps, and the sound of something muttering, reached their ears—but

Stick your head out and a bullet would come flying.

“What are they doing?”

“Seems like they’re admiring my work.”